Book Trust Funding Cut

This message was posted by the Book Trust on their website. The funding for the book gifting programme and two other initiatives is going....but there will be a phonics 'check' (test) for all childrern at the age of 6...

Booktrust funding news

Recently we received the following news...
Department for Education funding cuts to bookgifting programmes in England

Booktrust had notification on Friday 17 December from the Department for Education that funding for our bookgifting programmes Bookstart, Booktime and Booked Up in England will be cut by 100% from 1 April 2011. Please note that this news applies to England only.

Bookstart currently gives free packs of books to children up until the age of three-years-old through health visitors, children’s centres and library services. Booktime gives a free book pack to reception-aged children, shortly after they start primary school. Booked Up gives a free book to children when they start secondary school from a choice of 13 titles. These bookgifting programmes support and encourage book sharing and independent reading in the home, as well as the use of public libraries.

We are immensely surprised and disappointed by this decision especially as it has been made at a time when the government has identified a need to improve literacy levels in children of primary school age. We passionately believe in these programmes and the proven extraordinary transformative power of reading for pleasure.

Merry Christmas

A scene from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. You will need to bring the volume up to the limit to hear this clip.

The starving children are dreaming as they sleep lost in the wood. The composer asked for a staircase and angels to guard the children as they sleep. The directors of this production from Covent Garden thought they knew better. The music is wonderful. Is that Gunther Kress as the father in the background?

As well as being a composer, Humperdinck worked with Wagner on productions of Wagner's operas in the 19th Century.

Gove offers 'freedom' for teachers?

Here is an interesting piece from the web site Teacher Talks: http://thinkpolitics.co.uk/tpblogs/teachertalks/

The writer discusses what Gove means when he talks about providing more freedom for teachers with reference for their plans for early reading.

"Look also at their plans for reading. Of course, the fact that the Government has a centralised doctrine on how children should learn to read indicates Gove is not quite the radical, let it all hang free and loose Secretary of State he thinks he is. Whatever your views on the rights and wrongs of their chosen methodology (and this one prompts passions on both sides), Michael Gove and Nick Gibb have, with a so far undisclosed expertise in these matters, decided what’s best for the classroom. Politicians, not teachers, are calling the shots.

Not only do they advocate one particular approach to reading (synthetic phonics), with all the inherent dangers of putting your eggs in one basket, they would like to introduce a test in Year 1 of a child’s school life to make damn sure schools do what Gove wants.

However, the crude lesson from the SATs – the dreaded tests faced by Year 6, the final year of primary school – is that what matters gets measured, and what gets measured gets done. Too many schools, knowing they will be judged by their test scores, play by the book and play safe - in other words, they teach to the test.

What this means is that everything else gets squeezed, pushed to the side or ignored completely. Horizons shrink. This is dismal enough for eleven year olds, even worse for children experiencing their first moments of formal learning.

So, by prescribing in precise terms how reading is taught and then introducing a test to see whether schools are complying with their exhortations, Gove and Gibb have certainly called into question their credentials as freedom-bringers (not to mention whether the reforms will actually work).

The attempt, pitiful, it must be said, to disguise their controlling tendencies – by calling this test, a ‘check’ – doesn’t disguise that this is Whitehall taking control and that it will have a direct effect on teaching and learning. Strange that the recent White Paper was called ‘The Importance of Teaching’, perhaps ‘The Importance of Following Directives from Education HQ (contd.)’ may have been more apt.

The schizophrenic approach to policy – torn between the rhetoric of freedom and the instinct to prescribe – is confusing, muddied further by the seemingly random selection of targets. Why the strong views on teaching reading, yet nothing said on writing? Why review Year 6 tests because of the negative, limiting effects on the curriculum, yet bring in more of the same when children are even younger? Why trust free schools to appoint who they like, yet tell teacher-training institutions who they can and cannot let on their course? And, let’s cut to the quick – why Dryden?"

Is there a leader in the House?

Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, in an interview for television was asked about his view on student fees rising, he said:

“I think it is a bad decision but I am not going to fall into the trap that the Liberal Democrats fell into of making a promise that I am not sure I can keep. I think the lesson for politicians is that you should under-promise and over-deliver rather than overpromising and then breaking your promises.”

Hmm...

Student Protest

Extraordinary scenes from last Thursday 9th December in a new era of protest.

Paul O' Grady on the Coalition Government

Clever popular politics on Paul O' Grady's show.

'The Era of the Subject'

My thanks to Anthony Wilson for this information:

Notes of a meeting between subject association representatives and Nick Gibb (Schools Minister) on Wednesday 1st December 2010 (2.00 – 3.10 p.m.)

Meeting Present:

•Nick Gibb MP (Schools Secretary)
•John Steers (Chair CfSA, General Secretary NSEAD)
•Richard Green (Chief Executive of D&T Association)
•Annette Smith (Chief Executive of ASE)
•Rob Staples (ASPE representative, primary Headteacher)
•David Jones (CfSA liaison officer)
•DfE Representative
•DfE Representative
•DfE Representative


During the meeting the subject association representatives addressed each of the points for focus and the following sums up the discussion:

•The forthcoming primary and secondary curriculum review (a single review) will be carried out by academics.
•There is a need for course textbooks to support the curriculum in each subject. The texts should present pupils with ‘core subject knowledge’ – children need ‘fundamentals’.
•These should not be produced by government (or the awarding bodies) and therefore this is an opportunity for SAs.
•The curriculum should support sequential learning – the question was posed ‘when is it best for pupils to learn e.g. long division or the periodic table? ‘Why does B & Q need to run classes to show people how to use a saw?’
•Focus should be on the most appropriate time during the schooling process to introduce particular knowledge.
•The process of consultation leading to the review of the curriculum has already begun. The first draft for consultation will be ready by September 2011, with the final version in schools by September 2012 so that first teaching can begin in 2012.
•The review will take into account international evidence and will adopt a 'seek and search' approach.
•The Government is awaiting the Wolf Report before considering how technical, practical and vocational approaches to education will sit alongside the traditional/academic. It is considered important not to offer pupils choices too early in their education that close off possible routes that can be taken later.
•CPD for teachers will focus on pedagogy both within schools and outside schools with the intention of deepening subject knowledge (sabbaticals were mentioned by NG – he also said ‘Haven’t you heard? There’s no money.’).
•Real interest was shown in chartered teacher status as a means of recognising CPD specifically in terms of professional development and classroom impact for both primary and secondary teachers.
•Industry links may be encouraged. GCSEs and A level examinations should be constructed in a way that doesn’t narrow the curriculum. NG was at pains to stress that pupils should learn a body of knowledge and that a terminal examination should test their ability to recall that knowledge. Recently, there has been too much expectation that examination papers will include questions in ‘specific’ areas.
•ITT will be delivered by ‘University Training College’ (UTCs)working as clusters. The training schools will take the lead acting as a catalyst in raising the quality of teaching expertise.
•It makes sense for subject associations to be involved in the work with the proposed “Specialist Leaders of education’ (SLE) and to be engaged in the sharing of good practice in their curriculum area.

Nick Gibbs final comment was: ‘This is the era of the subject

Marjorie L. Hourd

I am re-reading Marjorie Hourd's The Education of the Poetic Spirit published in 1949. She is said to be one of the founders of the creative writing movement. I'm interested in the ways adults read children's poetry - the nature of their responses and the distinction to be made from these responses and those of a teacher.

At one point in the book Hourd writes: 'I do not think that we need to teach children how to write poetry; and all children are not poets in words. Some use paint or movement or music with more success. But many more of them are poets then we think, and our job as teachers is to leave the way open' (p.83) Hourd believed that the 'same aesthetic laws apply to child and adult writing' (p.73) and she does not shy away from a full and honest critique of the poems that she offers that children have produced, berating signs of what Ruskin called 'composing legalism' in the work.

No Broken Promises

This is really quite extraordinary as a Liberal Democratic video. It documents one of the biggest U-turns in politics. It is still breath-taking. Clegg is skillfully portrayed as genuine, caring, passionate and principled. He walks the streets which are littered with broken promises. It may well be the Lib Dem's undoing. What a mess.

Tim Minchin

Just in case there are those out there who have not seen and heard this song. It has also been a while since a video has turned up on this blog.

United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) New Book on Reading

UKLA have produced a new booklet on reading. This will be a timely publication and I would urge all involved in education to buy a copy; talk about what it says in staff meetings; discuss it with student teachers and make it available for parents.

You can buy it from UKLA's web site bookshop

Readers of the Daily Telegraph have their say..

Here are some comments from The Daily Telgraph forum page on their web site after reports in the paper that Michael Gove will be 'reforming' teacher training. It followed a piece which accused the teaching profession of being lefties


"Gove draining the leftie swamp ? good man."

"High time, Mr Grove, to get rid of the so called educational experts with a degree in sociology at teacher training colleges...Sociologists' and educationalists' ideas of facilitation, group work , 'teaching is a conversation' and 'knowledge is not the primary need' have been a major contribution to to our falling educational standards"

"I suggest you have a look at some of the teacher training forums on the net and see the "quality" of those in training - 3 times to take basic literacy and numeracy tests, they witter; appalling spelling and punctuation, total inability to express themselves - and you will quickly see that sarahlucy's experience is far from an isolated case. Deeply depressing"

"At this very moment a young lady from my village is training to be an English teacher at one of the Manchester university colleges.

She has 5 bad GCSE's, 2 poor quality A levels, a degree in education (2.1) from an ex-poly during which time she was never required to write a single essay or take any examinations or prepare a project. She had a half hour interview and bingo - a 2.1 degree. She then worked as a teaching assistant for 12 months in an infant school.

Last week, she showed me her first essay on Jane Austen. It is dreadful, it is unstructured with no introduction or conclusion, no paragraphs, no sentances and the punctuation is non existant. It is a list of comments drawn from Jane Austen films. When I suggested that she use quotations and discussion etc she admitted that she has never read any Jane Austen - or any other classical book, or any plays and she doesn't like poetry.

She is totally ignorant.

What on earth has teacher training come to?"

Policy for Teacher Education

Radical government reforms to shift teacher training away from universities and focus it in schools could be 'fraught with difficulty', a leading expert will warn today.

James Noble-Rogers, executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET), will tell delegates at a conference organised by UCU that proposed plans to replace teacher training courses at universities with apprenticeships in schools could pose problems for the future of teacher training. Noble-Rogers will highlight the fact that many schools are already working in successful partnerships with universities.

The seminar comes after education secretary, Michael Gove, hinted at a proposal to move away from the current system which sees trainees split their time between theoretical work in university and practical experience in schools. Instead, he suggested that initial teaching training for primary and secondary levels be concentrated in schools.

Mr Noble-Rogers will explore the myriad advantages of the current system of teacher training, and highlight figures that show OFSTED rates the quality of some 85% of teacher training as being either 'good' or 'outstanding', while every year, 85% of trainees rate their training as 'good' or 'very good'.

He will tell delegates: 'Any wholesale shift of funding from existing teacher training providers to schools could be fraught with difficulty. Many schools are already reluctant, or unable, to take part in teacher training programmes. Would they be forced to train their own? If they did not, where would they recruit their teachers from?

'And many schools that are involved in teacher education welcome the relationship that they have with universities, and would not want to have lead responsibility (and presumably accountability) foisted upon them. The current link between funding and the quality of teacher training would also be lost.'

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Contrary to Mr Gove's assertion that teaching is a 'craft' learned through simple observation of others at work, there is much theory and research behind the profession. Our members in teacher training departments in colleges and universities have a breadth of expertise and experience which would be lost in this crazy reform along with hundreds of jobs.'
Dan Ashley
press@ucu.org.uk

Students and Lecturers Demonstrate in London

New Book on English

There is a new book on Primary English Teaching edited by Robyn Cox. I have a chapter on reading in it. It is published by Sage in partnership with UKLA.

The book is mainly for undergraduate or PGCE teaching students and has a lively and slightly unusual approach to its presentation.

It is refreshing to see 'English' in the title. English has often been replaced by 'Literacy' in many books on this subject, as indeed it has been on many Education programmes.

'The Country is us'

Paris, France (Pictured).

The people of France don't appear to be giving their permission for their pension age to be raised. This may be a lesson to us all in democracy and the balance of power.

Demonstration 10th November

As 3 million French citizens demonstrated against austerity measures and pension reform at the weekend, teachers, students and lecturers unions are organising a march to protest against cuts to the University sector and measures on student fees in the U.K. It will be in London on November 10th. Students and lecturers will march together.

Rory Kinnear as Hamlet

Rory Kinnear is one of the best Hamlets I have seen (pictured). Hamlet is playing at the National Theatre and goes on tour after that. Similar to Mark Rylance's 1980s RSC Hamlet in some ways, I thought. Hamlet is a very likable fellow in both. He is also, like Rylance's, very funny at times. The soliloquies by Hamlet are breath-taking in this production, quite astonishing - Kinnear is outstanding.

The show is in modern dress and the director suggests that Ophelia is murdered in this version. Not sure about that, but it fits with the kind of political system that this production depicts. Go and see it.

Mina

I'm reading David Almond's new book. Mina, the main character, is 'home-schooled' because of an incident at her school over a SATs test. There is a disturbing section in the book that describes this incident. Although there is plenty of humour in this section, it is also depicts the tragedy of the demise of a great profession.

From the opening, the prominent theme of the book is clear: the disjunction between childhood imagination and the crushing nature of modern education, with its prescription and reductionist approach to learning and assessment.

Here is a passage:

'When I was at school - at St Bede's Middle - I was told by my teacher Mrs Scullery that I should not write anything until I had planned what I would write. What nonsense!

Do I plan a sentence before I speak it?

OF COURSE I DO NOT!

Does a bird plan its song before it sings?

OF COURSE IT DOES NOT!

It opens its beak and it

SINGS SO I WILL SING!

Almond speaks through Mina's writing in her journal. It's an interesting book for children which, amongst other things, reveals Almond's beliefs about childhood, the imagination and education.

New Article in 'Power and Education'

I have a new article published in the Journal 'Power and Education' called 'Class-Consciousness,Power, Identity and the Motivation to Teach'. You can find it here:http://www.wwwords.co.uk/power/content/pdfs/2/issue2_2.asp Volume 2 No. 2 2010

The Future

Michael Gove gave his speech today in Birmingham at the Conservative Party Conference. He said he was passionate about his determination to improve the education of the poorest in the country.

Before he took to the podium Dan Moynihan spoke for Harris Academies (schools sponsored by Lord Harris). He criticised Local Education Authorities for their 'poverty of ambition' and announced that there would be another 20 Harris Academies starting in the near future. He spoke of the 'freedom' they had found from being released from the grip of local authority control. Patricia Sowter a Head from a Primary Academy, called the Cuckoo Hall Primary, also spoke of her school's success without Local authority control. Both declared themselves accountable to parents and the children. Patricia said that the schools could 'define our own future and control'. 'Freedom' from local authority was central to all these people's thesis on why they were successful.

A few questions to consider:

Why should local authorities have this 'poverty of ambition' compared to those working in the schools? Is there something intrinsic to local authorities that makes them unhelpful in supporting schools?

Is accountability to central government, sponsors, parents and children of the schools enough?

Should there be a wider local democracy that involves the democratic vote for control and support of schools which, after all, is the basis for the establishment of local authorities?

What is the nature of the accountability that these speakers claim they have to parents and children?

Discuss

David Almond's new book

David Almond has a new book out. It's called 'My name is Mina'. He talks about it here: http://www.writeaway.org.uk/content/interview-david-almond

Looks good

New Labour Leader

I think everyone was surprised that Ed won the leadership of the Labour Party. It seems to have upset many in the media and in other corners of the establishment.

Everyone thought that David would win and take on the Blairite cause of a 'New Labour'. Not so.

The Times showed their dismay:

"His politics are subtly, but significantly different than David's...he uses the 'left-speak' of equality, enjoys union affiliation more openly,and has said he would not accept private sector input into schools even if it produces better results"

Jonathan Kozol

In 1972 Jonathan Kozol from Boston in the US wrote a book called 'Free Schools' about how he and a group of like-minded individuals started a 'free school'. He writes:

'The term Free School is used very often, in a cheerful but unthinking way, to mean entirely different things and to define the dreams and yearnings of entirely disparate and even antagonistic individuals and groups. It is honest to say right from the start, that I am speaking mainly of one type of Free School and that many of the ventures which go under the name of Free School will not be likely to find much of their own experiences reflected here. At one end of the spectrum, there is the large, public school-connected, neighborhood-created and politically controversial operation...at the opposite extreme is the rather familiar type of relatively isolated, politically non-controversial and generally all-white rural free school. This kind of school is often tied in with commune or with what is described as an 'intentional community', attracts people frequently who, if not rich themselves have parents who are wealthy, and is often associated with a certain kind of media-promoted counter-culture '(p.7).

If you have an hour, watch the lecture he gives here. Kozol is a liberal, and although not talking about free schools here, one can discern that his perspectives on education are different than recent government views on education in the US and the UK and so his concept of free schools is very different to the one being promoted by the present government in the UK too. He is a good speaker.

Someone suggested to me the other day that the idea of a free school being run a by a group of local like-minded families may well be rather a smoke screen for business enterprise organisations taking over schools in the UK...

VOICES

The Centre for Language in Education (CLPE) have published their new anthology of children's poetry from Southwark in London called Voices. It is a superb book of children's poetry writing. The poems are accompanied by Phil Polglaze's wonderful photographs of the children. You can buy it from CLPE's web site. It was good to see work from children in one school that I once taught in.

As Morag Styles comments on the back of the book, it must be bought for student teachers courses everywhere to help demonstrate the power of children's writing. It must be bought for children's libraries too - after all, it really is children's literature in the true sense isn't it?

It started me thinking about children's poetry - I mean the work written by children for children not for children by adults - Vernon Scannell and others declared that children can't write poetry, well, what does this book tell us about that view?

BERA tomorrow

The British Educational Research Association are having their Conference at the University of Warwick. I'm giving a paper tomorrow at 8.30am with two other colleagues.

I drove here. M25 and M1 were horrible. M45 was a dream as normal.

I was greeted by a wonderful sunny evening in Coventry.

Our paper is on an unusual subject for me. We are discussing (in 20mins) our work on new leadership structures in schools - Federations and distributed leadership. This was a commisioned piece of research.

Reading Wars...again

Miriam Gross (pictured) has published her 'So Why Can't They Read' for the right wing Centre for Policy Studies. It has a forward by Boris Johnson. You can read it here: http://www.cps.org.uk/cps_catalog/why%20can Those who are familiar with the arguments of those motivated by the politics of the right will not be surprised by the arguments that Gross makes. As Bernstein described this educational position, she wants a 'visible pedagogy' with all the rigid discipline that comes with it. Gross hates 'child centered', 'play based' learning and demands a return to traditional values.

OK, so nothing new here. Of course, the new UK coalition government are driven by this same politics too so we must expect this pedagogy to be on the rise in the policy for state schools.

I have commented on this aspect of right wing politically driven education ideas before: how advocates for this position feel the need to provide environments in our schools that appear to model for children undemocratic, even despotic regimes. In this book for the Centre for policy studies, Gross describes the regime of a school that she contends is an example of a good school:

'Some of the new Academy schools, like Mossbourne in Hackney have imposed much greater discipline on their pupils, both inside and outside the classroom. Children are firmly assigned to sets according to ability in all subjects. There are strict rules for behaviour throughout the school: pupils are not allowed to talk to each other in corridors whiles walking from one classroom to another;mobile phones are proscribed, as is chewing gum'

The language is telling here: children are firmly assigned sets; there are strict rules. Notice how talk is outlawed in areas unregulated by authority. Once again I am in no doubt these are the school regimes recommended for poorer members of society or the working class. I would imagine, there are many (not all) private schools which try to demonstrate a more democratic environment which show trust in the children and respects their dignity and rights, perhaps allowing them to talk and discuss between lessons. Their wealthy parents would demand it. At the same time I know that some state schools have remained determined to model democracy too and have resisted the forms of school regimes that Gross believes we all need to experience.

Politics remains the driving force in education as in all things and Gross's book demonstrates the normal right win position.

ESRC Poetry Seminar Series Success

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we have won ESRC money to hold a series of seminars at the Universities of Greenwich, Exeter and Leicester on poetry in schools!

Great news. We have a number of high profile partcipants from the world of poetry, from both the UK and abroad. It will be an excellent opportunity to get together to look for ways to develop poetry in schools and beyond.

Goodbye Old Room

I have now returned from a lovely restful holiday in Italy and have spent the day clearing my study room in the famous Fisher Tower. I could have almost done with a shovel to get through the tons of paper and old over-head projector slides - hours of prep. for lectures.

Everything is in boxes and ready to go.

Monday was spent in London meeting with Pie Corbett and Jonathon Rooke discussing plans for a series of conferences around the country on the subject of writing with Pie and me as the key notes. We met in the British Library and Pie was very keen to show me the Beowulf manuscript which is on display. Looks like the conferences will begin in Winchester in March 2011. We had a very interesting discussion about teaching writing - tuning into what we each believed about the subject - general consensus was reached in the end.

Book Submitted: Holiday Time

Well, 'Literacy on the Left: Reform and Revolution' is 'finished'. I say 'finished', but I expect to be editorially advised how to improve it after the publishers have read it. Overall I'm pleased, but I do need some advice from the experts as to how to make it even better. after all, this is the first single authored 'big' book I've written.

I have a chapter to write before the end of August on poetry and some more to do on an edited book I'm putting together with colleagues. Then, I'll have the work to do on 'Literacy on the left'. Having submitted the book, despite the inevitable extra bits I will have to do, I feel that it is a major project moving towards the exit. Phew, what an experience it has been!!

Great news about the ESRC Seminar series on Poetry that I bid for with two colleagues from other Universities - We won the bid!! I'm hoping that much will come from it in terms of publishing and perhaps more money for research.

Yes, research in real classrooms after the academic world of literacy on the left - bliss.

Now for a holiday in wonderful Italy...

Great Poetry Book

Beware 'The Big Society' - giving 'power to the people'...hmm. Which people? Power moved from the (at least partial) democratic State to business. Classic neo-Liberal philosophy in practice - discuss.

On a lighter note, Carol Ann Duffy's book of children's poetry is great from start to finish. Perfect for (in the main) older children - say from Year 4 upwards into secondary and of course all grown-ups.

Finishing the process of saying goodbye to my colleagues at my present institution. Everyone has been very kind. It's not really 'goodbye' more 'farewell for now' as I hope to be working with everyone again very soon.

Old Possum's Children's Poetry Competition

Roger McGough to chair international competition

Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition 2010

Roger McGough is to chair the judging panel for a worldwide poetry competition for 7-11 year olds. The Competition is organised by the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf, a poetry book club for young people run by the Poetry Book Society. To link with National Poetry Day on Thursday 7 October, children will be asked to write a poem in English on the theme of ‘Home’.

Now in its fifth year, the competition is open to both individuals and schools. Cash prizes of £250 for first prize, £100 for second and £50 for third will be awarded, along with books and CPB memberships, in two age groups, 7-8 year-olds and 9-11 year-olds. Entries will be accepted from Friday 10 September, up until the closing date of Friday 15 October. The winners will be announced at a gala celebration in London in December.

The British Council partnership, now in its third year, will continue to encourage entries to the ‘International Learner category’ for children based outside the UK who are learning English as a foreign or second language.

The Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition will encourage children to write poems of their own and help teachers to bring poetry alive in the classroom. A teacher’s guide to accompany the competition will be available to download from the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf website (http://www.childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk/) from early September, along with further information about the competition.

Post UKLA conference

The weekend was all about the United Kingdom Literacy Association conference in Winchester.

I gave a Key note speech on the Friday afternoon on the content of the book I'm writing called 'Literacy on the Left'. People came to me afterwards and throughout the conference saying how much they had enjoyed it. Which is really pleasing - some of the comments were quite over-whelming in the warmth of their praise. Yet, as I expected, I felt opinion was divided over all.

The main trust of my argument, as I saw it, was the divide on the 'left' between post-structuralist and Marxists and how each side see the objective of their approach to literacy teaching as very different. I said at the start of the lecture, as I write in the introduction of the book, opinions are passionately divided with each group seeing the other as wrong-headed, naive or even politically right wing (see McLaren, Hill, Cole etc on the Marxist side). I suspect that my own views on this divide came through and consequently, for some, I was not 'flavour of the month'. Still, I have never heard a lecture at UKLA before that explored these themes and debates. Post structuralist and post modernist perspectives are very prevalent within the world of literacy research in universities and perhaps it is useful and timely to look again at the politics of what we believe and try to implement in classrooms.

The picture is of Lenin and his wife Krupskaya who was responsible for post revolution education policy in Russia. For my book, it is crucial to examine what these Marxists did. I'm reminded of James Bond Films by the presence of the pussy cat.

New book on its way

There is a new book coming out on teaching early reading and phonics from Sage. We wanted to call it the sensible way to teach phonics, but the publishers preferred 'creative' - OK, we went with that.

It may not fit into the new coalition government's vision for the teaching of early reading, but its purpose is to provide both the rationale and practical ideas to teach reading (not just 'decoding') to young children.

On My Mind

I have two Key note speeches coming up at the moment. One is at Regents Park College for the London Association of the Teachers of English (LATE) and the other is the UKLA International conference a week this Friday in Winchester.

The first is a repeat of one I gave in Cambridge a couple of years ago, but the other is on 'Literacy on the Left'. As usual, for this one, I need to decide how to approach the subject of my book in a way that will be interesting and engaging and without getting too bogged down with complex theory which it does of course all rely upon (I can't spend too much time with Bernstein).

I'm thinking of offering a political spectrum of literacy practice and then picking on some of the differences between such practice as 'critical literacy' to 'revolutionary critical literacy'. A description of the work of Chris Searle with examples of his students' work could be interesting alongside the philosophy of Freire, with his emphasis on the need for educators to 'come over' to the working class - but then a critique, perhaps based on Hatcher's work.

It would be useful to discuss left and right politics - the origins of the terms first and then perhaps to describe briefly the social democratic liberal philosophy, the 'neo-liberal' answer to education and then Marxism.

After the UKLA conference... I need to finish the book and then think about leaving my present University - moving books, papers and computer files - ready for taking up my Professorship in South East London. Oh, and I need a new car...

Gove

Michael Gove the new Education Minister has plans.

A test for children's ability to 'decode' at 6 years old. In his release to schools he does not use the term 'reading' to decribe what he will be testing at this age. One could argue that this is a much more accurate description of the skills he does intend to be tested.

However, a fear may be that 'decoding' is what teachers will be teaching rather than reading, as he goes on to say that teachers will be held to account to the parents and to him for any child who is unable to 'decode' to an 'adequate standard' by this age.

Confirmation

I Have just accepted the Chair in Education at a University in the South East of England. (I have a policy on this blog of not naming the Universities with whom I am associated - I don't really know why)

I will start in September 2010. I will be leaving my present University after 15 years.

I will of course be working with my final thesis MA students until they finish and I will be negotiating the future of my supervision of my PhD students.

News..!

Yesterday I was offered a Chair in Education at another University in the South East of England

I was interviewed last Friday for the post along with three other candidates.

More news soon...

'Immersion' in New Media

I'm grateful to fellow blogger Prof. Guy Merchant for posting this film on his blog. Guy feels the film is anti New Media as it depicts children's pleasure in game playing alongside sounds of violence from the games themselves. At one point a tear seems to fall from one of the child-players.

Take a look and decide for yourselves. What is actually going on here?

Academies

"Academies represent the privatisation of a public service (Ball 2007, Beckett 2007). In 1869the National Education League was launched in Birmingham. It called for an end to schools dependent on the charity of the wealthy, and for them to be run by elected local authorities and funded through the rates. By 1870 the League had more than one hundred branches,mostly in cities and drawing from trades unions and working men's organisations.Academies are a reversal of that historic gain for the working class in education; a return to a new form of Victorian charity (which does not exclude the possibility of a future transition to a profit-making role). They pose fundamental issues of democracy and of class politics." (Hatcher 2009)

Discuss

Salt Kids

Brand new site about children's poetry is here http://saltpublishing.com/kids/. Find out what you can learn about children's poetry and how to teach it, read it and write it.

I was at the 'Poetry Summit' meeting in London yesterday. I came away much more hopeful about the state of children's poetry publishing. The summit is a group of publishers, educationalists, arts funders, literacy organisations, retailers and others who feel strongly about the need for more poetry for children.

I'll be leading a workshop at this year's UKLA International Conference in Winchester with the poet Roger Stevens, funded by Macmillan, on behalf of the Poetry Summit. We will be having some fun with poetry and I'll be briefly explaining the work of the summit.

Twittering Classrooms

I'm grateful for Martin Waller's blog for this link to twittering in Orange class: http://twitter.com/ClassroomTweets This looks very interesting

New Government

The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that whoever forms the next government will become so unpopular, due to the cuts that are expected to be made in order to 'put right' the damage done by the banking institutions and the crisis in the economy, they could be out of power for a generation afterwards.

It's being called the 'Cleggarmeron Coalition' - the question is 'how long can it last?' - political careers seem forthright in the minds of our two new leaders as they worked out an agreement.

For whose best interests do they serve?

'Most parents want their children to have a traditional education, with children sitting in rows learning the Kings and Queens of England, the great works of literature, proper mental arithmetic, algebra by the age of eleven, modern foreign languages. That's the best training for the mind and that's the best way children will be able to compete' (Michael Gove - our new Education Secretary).

More on Chris Searle

If you want to read some very interesting articles on the work of Chris Searle, visit this site:

http://www.irr.org.uk/2009/october/ak000024.html

ITE should include the work of teachers like Searle as examples of those who chose to try radical approaches. Great opportunities for discussion and debate; wonderful opportunity to offer to widen student teachers' perspectives.

Fridge Door Writing

Here's a thought that comes from Chris Bigum:

Some fridge doors have children's writing mounted on them, using magnets. It is taken home by the author and displayed there for a day or two and then removed. Could this be perceived as writing completed at school and else where that is looking for an authentic audience - maybe because its denied one in its place of production...?

Chris Searle

I have been reading about the 'left wing' teaching of Chris Searle (pictured) in the 1970s. This is fascinating work. His approach has been said to be 'critical literacy as cultural action' by Lankshear and Knobel (2009). From what I have read of his work, Searle encourages the children in his care to draw on class instincts and consciousness to create the subjects and contexts for their learning to read and write. He also insists on the importance of the children having optimal possibilities to become proficient speakers, readers and writers of standard English to be able the engage effectively in critique of and intervention in issues and problems which effect those around them. To have:

'an understanding of basic grammar and sentence analysis, the power to spell correctly and to use punctuation effectively, to know and be able to construct myriad figures of speech, and be able to write sequentially and coolly while maintaining creative strength and imaginative energy' (1998:75)

This approach strikes me as a rationale close to that of Gramsci and Freire in this move to enable children to grasp the skills and knowledge that they argue is presently in the hands of the powerful or ruling class. I am given the feeling that Searle considers some forms of literacy and 'secondary discourse' (Gee 2007), and the texts associated with them, to have an almost autonomous value and power.

Lankshear and Knobel (2009) insists on calling the uses that Searle encourages the children to make of the literacy being taught, as 'cultural action' and presents his work within a postmodern analysis of contemporary education policy and practice. However, Searle's approach appears to me to be more settled around a particular political meta narrative - namely Marxism. The 'cultural action' that Searle is said to advocate seems much more to be 'class action'.

Time-Out: Birthday Blog

This blog has been running for over a year now. I suppose I should reflect on its uses. Well, it's a practise area for my writing at times. If you do read it regularly, you will know that there are quite a few entries which consist of me splurging out writing which contain ideas for inclusion in books and papers. Indeed, I have used sections of this writing in chapters and papers that have gone on to be published.

I know I have 'followers' - there are those who regularly read what I have been blogging about. Not sure in what ways they gain from this - perhaps just to satisfy their curiosity. I tend to assume that those who read this blog are mainly students I have taught or am teaching and they have an interest in the subject - so there is an affinity. Although, I also wonder who else does read it. Perhaps people I have known in the past and have Googled my name also out of curiosity. There are also friends and family who read the entries. So, thanks to all of you.

Given my interest in education, literacy and politics the blog has also been a way to express my feelings over newspaper articles, T.V and books I have seen and read. I'm sure its obvious to all what my own political views are, but I must say, I do try and NOT explicitly express my own opinion over matters to do with politics..why's that?

Enjoy the clip from the Chabrier opera L'Etoile. A birthday present to the blog must be my new ability to embed video clips. Hurrah! Things could get a little more interesting from now on.. Anyway, allow me some indulgence on this, my blog's first birthday and gaze into the night sky and wonder what is to come.

Michael Rosen on Sats

Watch Michael Rosen discussing SATS at a Public Meeting in Lambeth. You may wish to skip forward on the film to around 7 minutes to get to Michael's piece.

Head Teachers and NUT say 'No' to SATS

The NUT and the Head Teachers union has voted to boycott SATS. If SATs to you means the degrading of education - the reduction of teaching to little more than training; unfair league tables and much more - than you will want to support our teachers and Head Teachers in their campaign to end them. England has insisted on continuing with SATS.

Michael Rosen has started a Facebook campaign to support the teachers - it's a site for parents to register their support - parents' voice will be crucial.

Teachers will no doubt have to endure a media offensive that will try and break their resolve. Already, the BBC has been interviewing children in schools that have been busy training the children for the tests and have chosen to ignore the boycott. Teachers will need to know they have the support of as many people as possible - parents, student teachers and education academics. So, if you believe in what our teachers are doing let them know.

Jesus

This is my 'bedtime' read at the moment. I've just started it. I have the white version.

Lots of publicity about this at the moment. I heard one commentator query why Pullman was obsessed with attacking the institution of the church in much of his work. He asked 'is there something in Pullman's own history that compels him to write about the church in the way he does? I suspect there has to be - of course.

Education and Ideology

This is a piece from a local newspaper. It reports on the work of a local school girl to 'launch a national challenge encouraging pupils to make money'. It is a scheme 'designed to inspire future entrepreneursand backed by the stars of TV series, Dragons' Den

The idea is to encourage children to turn £10 into £70,000 in one month. The schemes that the children are to come up with are described as 'community-minded'. This must make the challenge harder I would imagine. It suggests the children need to consider the ethics of their money-making exercises before carrying them out..but'greed is good'...

Cambridge

Back in Cambridge for another workshop. Funding cuts threaten the future of these writing visits. There is talk that if workshops go ahead again they may be in Kent on a campus site.

The beauty and the success of these trips is because they are held away from the normal goings on of University life. I fear for any future workshops held back in Kent.

This workshop could be the last of its kind and it will become just legend rather than reality.

Education for Change - Left Perspectives

Can education and the teaching of literacy change society? Gramsci and Freire believed that that it could. Giroux believes that forms of critical pedagogy can make a difference to students' consciousness and so seed a 'revolutionary ferment' within society - that people can begin to reflect upon their own lot and that of others and realise the need for the transformation of society.

Researching my book 'Literacy on the Left' has led me to read about pre and post-revolutionary Russia and how the leaders of that transformation of society saw the role of education. Was schooling and education part of the way forward for change for leaders like Lenin and Trotsky (pictured) in their building for the revolution?

Here is historian Sheila Fitzpatrick (1979)

As a revolutionary opponent of the Tsarist regime, Lenin invariably chose the course of political activism rather than that of gradual enlightenment of the people. He showed comparatively little interest in the efforts of Social-Democrat intellectuals to educate the workers in the 1890s and expressed contempt for the liberal enlighteners of the Committee on Illiteracy who were prepared to settle for gradual change within the existing political framework. (p.8)

This to me indicates Lenin's belief that 'events' were worth more than theory and a commitment to a materialist conception of history as contended by Marx.

Fitzpatrick goes on in her book to describe that after the revolution, Lenin was insistent that education was crucial and fought against what he called 'Communist conceit' that resented that workers had things to learn from the bourgeoisie. Lenin believed that people with education were more cultured than people without it. Workers and Communists who pretended that 'bourgeois' culture was inferior to 'proletarian' were simply confusing the issue: the basic cultural task of the Soviet state was to raise the educational level of the masses, and the basic task for communists was to raise their own cultural level by learning the skills of the bourgeoisie' (p9)

So Lenin saw education and culture as autonomous. When I discuss left approaches to literacy and education in the book, there is a clear distinction to made between more post-modern approaches which sees knowledge and culture as ideological and the views of Marxists like Lenin who took the culture and learning in the hands of the ruling class as being a reflection of the developments of humanity and knowledge - now to be shared with all.

Power, Postmodernism and Education

My paper called 'Class Consciousness, Power, Identity and the Motivation to Teach' has just been accepted in the Journal 'Power and Education'. I have not published in this journal before. It's good to see an end result to the research process.

I'm writing about postmodernism for my book 'Literacy on the Left' and the bitter disputes between those on the left who take a postmodern position to resistance and the Marxists. Of course Marxism is thought to be an over-simplistic deterministic metanarrative to the PMs.

Marxists perceive Postmodernist thought to have links to the doctines of the free market.

McLaren in a discussion (2001:36) says of postmodernists: ' They are embarrased by the language of Marxism and label you as hopelessly old-fashioned and naive. They wonder why, for instance, I would want to limit my reading audience by using Marxist analysis. Their revolution is basically an aesthetic one, and their revolutionary activity consists largely of going shopping' Phew!

Dave Hill (2001:40), in the same transcribed discussion says:

'Postmodernist analysis, it seems to me, with its stress on segmentation, differentiation, collective disempowerment and its telos of individuated desire, justifies the current marketised, neo-liberal project of capital'

I'm reading a good book at the moment to look at the issues in education that the Bolsheviks faced after the Russion revolution concerning 'left' education policy: Sheila Fitzpatrick's (1979) 'Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union'. I may blog about this in the future.

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Conceptions of Childhood

I've been debating blogging about the two children who tragically killed a smaller boy in Liverpool, one of whom is in the news at the moment. I considered posting the two 'mug-shot' images of the boys on this blog which I saw again on the television. However, when I did, I recognised that it would be completely unethical to post them on this blog.

They are shocking images that are a stark reflection of British society's conception of childhood at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Century. In the images they are clearly two young children being treated as if they are adult criminals being prepared for prison and the criminal justice system - thought of and represented as being equally culpable and responsible as any other adults going through that system.

Signs of Spring and Storytelling

Dare I say that spring is beginning to emerge from a weekend of rain and gloom?

Next week (Tuesday 9th March) June Peters will be telling stories and offering ideas for the use of storytelling in the classroom here at the University from 6pm. Ticket are on sale at the door in the Old Sessions House (Og46) or from me. There will also be an UKLA bookshop full of 'ideas' books from 5.30pm.

Do come along if you can

It is now coming up to a year since I started to write this blog. The first one was 23rd April 2009

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

When I write, I accumulate a pile of books, papers and journals that assist me in my work.

They are open at certain pages that contain the information and scholarship that will enrich my own writing. Here's my pile as it is today.

You may recognise some of them. In the middle is Ken Jones' book on 'Education in Britain'. Left of Ken is Sally Tomlinson's book called 'Education in a Post-Welfare Society'.

Dorothy Heathcote and Drama

If you have not seen Dorothy Heathcote in action, or know little about her influence on process drama then go to this web site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jBNIEQrZs#watch-main-area The You Tube site shows a 1971 Omnibus Programme called 'Three Looms Waiting" made by Roy Smedley